Organized by Luan Peng, ChainCatcher.
Important news:
Musk tweeted this morning with a frog element.
The cryptocurrency market value surpassed the US high-yield bond market in Q4 2024.
OKX plans to conduct TON network upgrade maintenance on January 2 and suspend deposits and withdrawals.
Shanghai police dismantled a virtual currency scam gang, earning high fees through a fake trading platform.
Data: At least 60 billionaires worldwide have invested in Bitcoin.
The IRS released a temporary relief measure for cryptocurrency taxes, which will benefit CeFi exchange users in 2025.
Syria proposed to legalize Bitcoin to promote economic recovery.
Ten regions in Russia are fully banning cryptocurrency mining starting today.
What important events occurred in the past 24 hours?
Musk tweeted this morning with a frog element.
Musk tweeted again at 5 AM Beijing time, 'Brothers in Arms,' with an image of Pepe as a Roman general.
It is reported that Musk is currently playing the hardcore mode of Path of Exile 2, at level 85. The core mechanism of hardcore mode is permanent death, meaning that once a character dies, all progress and equipment are permanently lost. This mechanism offers players a high level of challenge and a sense of achievement.
The cryptocurrency market value surpassed the US high-yield bond market in Q4 2024.
According to Grayscale Research's report, in the last quarter of 2024, the cryptocurrency market value soared from 1 trillion USD to over 3 trillion USD, surpassing the global value of inflation-linked bond markets. At certain moments, the cryptocurrency market value was even twice that of the US high-yield bond market.
OKX plans to conduct TON network upgrade maintenance on January 2 and suspend deposits and withdrawals.
According to an official announcement, OKX will conduct TON network upgrade maintenance at 10:00 AM (UTC+8) on January 2, during which deposits and withdrawals will be suspended. Expected to resume:
Upgrade maintenance will be completed on January 3 at 18:00 (UTC+8), and withdrawals will be reopened;
Upgrade maintenance will be completed on January 3 at 18:00 (UTC+8), and deposits will be reopened.
Shanghai police dismantled a virtual currency scam gang, earning high fees through a fake trading platform.
Recently, the Shanghai Yangpu police successfully solved a virtual currency contract trading fraud case after meticulous investigation, dismantling a scam gang of 16 members, with involved amounts exceeding 300,000 yuan.
After interrogation, the suspects have fully confessed to their criminal activities. Based on preliminary investigation findings, the task force has completely grasped the methods of operation of the crime gang, which involved three individuals, Yang, Yu, and others, posing as 'investment masters' infiltrating various virtual currency investment chat groups, directing interested individuals to a fake trading platform they created. They exploited the victims' desire to 'make quick money' by inducing them to conduct multiple trades to earn high fees. Subsequently, they manipulated victims into raising their investment 'profit and loss rates', leading them to mistakenly believe that their investment failures were due to their own misjudgments of the market, thus defrauding them of their money.
Currently, Yang and 15 other suspects have been criminally detained by the Yangpu police for fraud, and the case is under further investigation. (Xinmin Evening News)
Data: At least 60 billionaires worldwide have invested in Bitcoin.
HODL15Capital stated that at least 60 billionaires worldwide have invested in Bitcoin, indicating that the confidence of global elites is continuously increasing.
The IRS released a temporary relief measure for cryptocurrency taxes, which will benefit CeFi exchange users in 2025.
According to Bitcoin.com, the IRS has released a temporary relief measure that is expected to benefit CeFi exchange users in 2025. This relief addresses concerns raised by the final version of the Rule 6045 for custodial brokers, which will take effect on January 1, 2025, requiring digital assets to adopt a first-in, first-out (FIFO) accounting method unless alternative preferred methods like highest-in, first-out (HIFO) or Spec ID are chosen.
Shehan Chandrasekera, the tax strategy director at Cointracker, explained this issue, emphasizing that 'as of January 1, 2025, almost all CeFi brokers are not yet prepared to support Spec ID.' This lack of preparation will force many cryptocurrency holders to adopt FIFO accounting by default, potentially leading to higher tax burdens during asset sales. He described, 'In a bull market environment, this could be disastrous for many taxpayers because you will unintentionally sell the earliest purchased assets first (which often have the lowest cost basis) while inadvertently maximizing your capital gains.'
The IRS's temporary relief allows taxpayers to continue using their own records or tax software to identify specific units being sold. The relief period only applies to CeFi transactions from January 1, 2025, to December 31, 2025. After this date, taxpayers will need to formally choose an accounting method with their broker. Chandrasekera also emphasized the importance of synchronizing tax software with broker setups.
Syria proposed to legalize Bitcoin to promote economic recovery.
According to Cryptopolitan, the Syrian Economic Research Center proposed a plan urging the transitional government to adopt Bitcoin and other digital assets to combat inflation, stabilize the economy, and attract global investment. This proposal comes at a time when the country faces significant reconstruction challenges after decades of war and financial disaster. The proposal focuses on using Bitcoin as a lifeline for Syrian citizens and their faltering financial system. It suggests establishing a regulatory framework to legalize the use of Bitcoin in transactions, mining, and financial dealings.
Ten regions in Russia are fully banning cryptocurrency mining starting today.
Ten regions in Russia fully banned cryptocurrency mining starting January 1, with three other regions implementing partial bans. The government decree was passed on December 23, stipulating a complete ban on mining from January 2025 to March 2031, while in the other three regions, partial restrictions will apply during each heating season (from November 15 to March 15 of the following year, excluding the first year starting January 1, 2025).
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak stated at the end of December that the number of regions banning cryptocurrency mining could increase if requests are made by governors. Authorities in the Republic of Khakassia have already asked the Ministry of Energy to restrict mining activities in the region.
Vitalik questioned Musk over free speech and the 'banhammer' threat.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin called on Musk to 'cool down' as his platform has sparked new free speech controversies amid a heated debate about foreign tech workers.
Musk publicly supports the hiring of foreign tech workers by top US companies, sparking anger among conservatives on X, who believe that hiring conditions for domestic citizens are becoming increasingly unfavorable.
Vitalik stated that while he admires Musk's willingness to fight for free speech, he urged Musk to 'cool down', moderate the 'tone of discourse', and stop using the 'social media banhammer' to shut down X accounts.
Vitalik stated: 'It is easy to respect free speech when we agree with the speech, but difficult when we find the speech awful. However, the reason to respect free speech never changes: today the ban is in one party's hands, and tomorrow it may be controlled by another.'
RootData: The total financing amount in the Web3 industry reached 10.112 billion USD in 2024, with Animoca Brands becoming the most active investor with 95 deals.
According to statistics from the Web3 asset data platform RootData, the total financing amount in the crypto market reached 10.112 billion USD in 2024, an increase of 8.3% compared to 9.337 billion USD in 2023. A total of 1548 financing events occurred, with 102 mergers and acquisitions, a 34.2% increase from 76 in 2023, setting a historical high. The average financing amount was 9.1352 million USD, with a median financing amount of 4.1 million USD. In terms of financing scale, projects in the 1-3 million USD range were the most numerous at 408, followed by 244 in the 5-10 million USD range and 219 in the 3-5 million USD range; in terms of financing rounds, seed rounds dominated with 426.
From the distribution of sectors, the infrastructure sector is the most favored by capital, with total financing reaching 3.995 billion USD in 2024, an 18.2% increase from 3.379 billion USD in 2023; the DeFi sector ranks second with 1.493 billion USD, nearly doubling from 759 million USD in 2023; the gaming sector's financing increased from 669 million USD in 2023 to 813 million USD. Notably, financing in the CeFi sector decreased from 990 million USD in 2023 to 679 million USD in 2024. The largest financing event of the year was Stripe's 1.1 billion USD acquisition of the stablecoin platform Bridge, followed by Bitcoin mining company Iris Energy's 413 million USD financing, and Avalanche's 250 million USD OTC financing.
From the perspective of investment institution activity, Animoca Brands ranks first with 95 investments, followed by OKX Ventures with 72 and MH Ventures with 56. In terms of leading investments, Polychain was the most active, completing 30 leading investments throughout the year, Hack VC ranked second with 24, and both Lemniscap and Animoca Brands completed 17 leading investments, tying for third place.
Usual: The brief drop of USD0 to 0.99 USD yesterday was caused by a large-scale sell-off of USD0 by a whale, and the peg has now been restored to normal.
Usual stated on social media that at 5 PM Beijing time yesterday, the Usual protocol experienced a massive USD0 sell-off triggered by a whale trading on the secondary market. This incident raised doubts about USD0's ability to maintain its peg to 1 USD. USD0 briefly fell to 0.99 USD, then quickly returned to the 1 USD peg point within seconds, although there was initially a deviation of several basis points (bps) due to continued selling, it fully regained its peg after several hours.
USD0 can always be redeemed at a 1:1 ratio for its underlying collateral assets, ensuring the solvency of the Usual protocol. Currently, all USD0 can be redeemed on a T+0 basis and are supported by highly liquid short-term money market instruments.
The peg has been restored to normal. This incident was the first significant stress test on USD0's pegging ability, with the redemption volume in a few hours exceeding the total TVL of GHO, but the protocol continued to operate normally. Efforts to optimize processes and improve efficiency will continue, and many exciting updates are on the way.
Andrew Kang: 2025 will be the year of AI agents.
Andrew Kang, a partner at Mechanism Capital, posted on X: '2025 will be the year of AI agents, 2026 will be the year of humanoid robots, and 2027 will be the year of human-AI integration.'
What are the exciting articles worth reading in the past 24 hours?
RootData's December summary of cryptocurrency market data: BTC surged strongly at year-end to reach new highs, and the investment and financing market showed signs of recovery.
The MicroStrategy model has gained market recognition, with most Bitcoin mining companies issuing convertible bonds to raise funds while the market is hot.
The conclusions of 50 crypto KOLs for 2024 and the password for 2025.
The New Year is just around the corner.
The cryptocurrency world of 2024 is full of peaks and valleys, with Bitcoin reaching new highs, new narrative melodies sweeping the industry, with some seizing wealth-making opportunities to reach the summit, while others lead trends and pluck the strings of the future.
An evident trend is that, in the rapidly evolving pace of the industry and the rise of memes, crypto KOLs are becoming increasingly crucial in discovering new value targets, smoothing information dissemination, and supervising industry issues.
Therefore, at the turn of the year, Odaily Planet Daily specially invited 50 leading KOLs in the Crypto field to review their experiences in 2024, look ahead to opportunities in 2025, share their messages, and wish reader friends to accurately capture Alpha in the new year, with abundant wealth and success in all endeavors!
Grayscale's Q1 2025 selection: 20 tokens with high growth potential.
The crypto market saw a significant rise in Q4 2024, with the FTSE/Grayscale Crypto Sectors index showing strong market performance. The increase largely reflects positive market reactions to the results of the US elections.
The competition in the smart contract platform sector remains fierce. The market leader, Ethereum, is lagging in price performance compared to the second-largest competitor, Solana, and investors are increasingly taking notice of other Layer 1 networks like Sui and The Open Network (TON).
Grayscale Research has updated its Top 20 token list. This list represents diversified assets in the cryptocurrency industry that may have high potential in the upcoming quarter. New assets added in Q1 2025 include HYPE, ENA, VIRTUAL, JUP, JTO, and GRASS. All assets on the Top 20 list exhibit high price volatility and should be considered high risk.
MegaETH Ecosystem Overview: What projects does MegaMafia cover?
Currently, MegaMafia covers 13 projects, along with 15 projects that are built on MegaETH or plan to integrate MegaETH but do not yet belong to MegaMafia.
Review of the performance of 22 mainstream public chains in 2024: half of the data declined, Hyperliquid ranked first in multiple data points.
From a data perspective, which public chains truly experienced a rise in 2024? Which public chains' decline may not be underestimated but rather represent a genuine downturn?
Meme Hot List
According to data from the meme token tracking and analysis platform GMGN, as of January 1, 19:30:
The top five popular tokens on Ethereum in the past 24h are: KEKIUS, TRUMPIUS, BABYKEKIUS, RAI, PEPE.
The top five popular tokens on Solana in the past 24h are: DAD, EM, SHIKOKU, KEKIUS, TRUMPUS.
The top five popular tokens on Base in the past 24h are: VIRTUAL, AKUMA, BBRETT, MOXIE, Evo.
